Many carriers providing various types of telephone communications network (public switched network, terrestrial or non-terrestrial public mobile network, etc.) offer the option of transmitting the telephone number of the caller with incoming calls. The number can be displayed on a screen of a terminal receiving the call or stored in a memory of the terminal. The problem addressed by the invention is that of associating a telephone number with information relating to the caller. The telephone number is not a straightforward identifier and it can be difficult for the terminal user to identify the caller only from their telephone number.
Various solutions to this problem have already been proposed. A first solution applies to terminals which store a directory of names with associated telephone numbers, in which case, when a caller's number is received, it is compared to all of the telephone numbers stored in the directory; if the caller's number as received coincides with a number stored in the directory, then the name corresponding to the number stored in the directory is displayed on the screen; in some terminals the display of the name of the caller replaces the number, while in others the name is displayed in addition to the number. That solution is employed in some of the mobile terminals currently available. It is limited to the directory or directories of the terminal and cannot provide the name of a caller who is not listed in the directory or directories of the terminal.
In the case of private networks (for example a PABX), the name of the caller can be transmitted and displayed if the caller is also on the private network. The service is not provided in the case of an outside caller who is not listed in the database of the private system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,788 proposes another solution to the problem, dedicated to calls to the emergency services, obtained in the USA by dialing 911. It proposes to transmit such calls to a response station. The response station has a memory containing information relating to callers and information relating to emergency services. On receiving a call, the response station retrieves information relating to the caller from the memory, using the caller's number, and transmits the information to the appropriate emergency service agency. That solution is satisfactory only if information relating to the name of the caller is actually stored in the memory of the response station, and from this point of view that solution is entirely similar to the directory solution referred to above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,414 describes various systems available in the United States and in particular the interstate automatic number identification (ANI) system which provides information relating to the caller from a single database, so that solution is limited by the content of that single database. WO-A-97/33418 describes an improvement to the ANI system intended to provide other types of information, but still based on a single database. The drawbacks are the same.
Finally, there are various services for providing a name from a telephone number. The French Minitel service, accessed by dialing 3617 and entering the code “ANNU”, obtains the details of a subscriber from their telephone number. The Internet site annu.web provides the same service.